Elastic Heart
by Emma44126
Summary: You always sounded different in person than on the phone. Pruhun


He listened as the phone continued to ring.

"Hey, This is Liz. You have reached my voicemail, leave a message after the beep. If this is Gibert you're a loser and stop calling me, haha just kidding love you Gil."

He laughed lightly and shook his head. "You're such a character Liz," he mumbled, then let out a light chuckle. He laid on the couch and sleepily, he closed his eyes.

* * *

A knock on the door awoke him, he smiled slightly and opened the door up. For a moment he figured it was Liz, but laughed it off as he saw Matthew in the doorway.

"Hi- Gil, can I come?" Matthew asked, giving him a look of sympathy.

"Yeah, sure dude, want anything to drink?" He asked as he walked to the fridge, Matthew denied politely. Gilbert saw the last bottle of beer and reached to grab it. But stopped himself, maybe he should ask first. "I'll be out in a minute Matthew, I just need to make a phone call."

He dialed the familiar number and waited. It reached her voicemail.

"Hey, This is Liz. You have reached my voicemail, leave a message after the beep. If this is Gibert you're a loser and stop calling me, haha just kidding love you Gil."

He listened to the message, but decided not to leave a voicemail, she never bothered to check them anyways. He figured she wouldn't mind and grabbed the last beer before heading back to the living room and situating himself on the couch.

"How are you doing?" Matthew started, "You know, since-" Gil cut him off.

"Fine, fine and you?" Gilbert spoke too quickly Matthew noticed.

"Are you sure? I mean she's-" Matthew started again.

"Of course I am. I've never been more positive."

"Are you sure? Gil It's not healthy to-" Matthew tried to tell him.

"Mattie, I'm fine, is that all you need?" Gilbert asked and Matthew reluctantly nodded.

"Gil, just promise me, you won't keep your feelings bottled up, you know you have a habit of doing that. Remember, I'm here if you need to talk about it,"

"I'll keep it in mind,"

A week passed slowly and quietly. As the phone rang, Gilbert rushed to answer it.

"Hello?" He asked slowly, unsure of who it was as he failed to check the caller ID.

"Hey Gilbo! Me and Arthur," He heard a faint 'Arthur and I' "Sorry Arthur _and I_ are at this bar and we were wondering if you wanted to come and drink with us. You can't stay locked up forever ya know," Mathias rambled on. He heard Arthur mumble something about Gilbert shouldn't be drinking because-

"Yeah, sure, awesome. I'll be there in half an hour. I just need to shower and make a phone call,"

"Great, great. We'll see here soon, drive safely Gil," Mathias mumbled the last part- almost like he regretted the words as he said them.

Gilbert quickly made a phone call, but they didn't answer. He didn't bother on leaving a voicemail; they never checked it anyways. He quickly showered and made his way to the bar. There he spent the night drinking with two of his friends and they all shared stories of how they all sucked at raising their sibling or siblings. After, they staggered to Mathias' house who lived close enough to walk to the bar.

The next day Gilbert and Arthur made the walk back to the bar so both could pick up their cars. When he finally returned home, Gilbert noticed he had left his phone. He picked it up and looked at the notification on his phone telling him his voicemail was full. He tapped it and it sent him to his voicemail.

He decided to listen to them first instead of just wiping the entire box. He received a voicemail from his brother just last night asking how he was doing, delete. He went quickly through them since most were spam, wrong numbers, or unimportant.

"Hey Gil," He knew that voice, he could listen to that voice for hours, "It's Liz, you never check your caller ID so I still have to remind you, thought you could probably guess by listening to my voice," Of course he could, he knew that voice by heart, "Anyways, I'm calling to apologize, I know I said some stupid stuff, and I know I don't deserve your forgiveness," Lies, he would always forgive her, no matter what, "But, if you could call me back and we could talk abo-"

Her voice cut off by a loud crash, metal on metal, and her phone disconnected.

"Voicemail received September 3rd, would you like to save or delete this message?" He did it without glancing and thought he clicked save, "Message deleted."

No, no, no, no no. He clicked button after button trying to retrieve it, but with no success. It felt like breaking down and crying right there.

He turned his head and dropped his phone on the counter as he stared at the picture on the fridge. It was of both of them on graduation day both smiling and happy. He almost chuckled at the picture. He pushed himself away from the counter and grabbed the picture from under the fridge magnet.

"It's funny, Liz," He started, staring at the photo, "How we deal with grief. Some people can move on the next day and some can never move on. Sometimes we blame ourselves or others. Some wallow in their own pity and some surround themselves with other things,"

"Sometimes, I wonder Liz, If I could have done something. I don't know. People say outcome can be completely changed if you do one thing different, maybe if I didn't break the coffee cup that day it was raining, you know what cup. Maybe if I had told you I was sorry that time I didn't return your calls and you were up all night wondering what if I was dead. Maybe if- I'm sorry Liz. I know this isn't like me to wallow in guilt, but, I can't help but think. I almost want to laugh, if you were here you would have laughed when I said 'think' and cracked a joke about how I don't,"

"I just want to know what I could've done, Liz," He whispered as he replaced the photo back on the fridge.

He picked his phone back up and dialed her number, just to hear her voice one more time, He expected the usual hey this is Liz and diss him.

"We're sorry; you have reached a number that has been disconnected or is no longer in service. If you feel you have reached this recording in error, please check the number and try your call again."

* * *

 **Another angsty story because I was listening to more music, guess the name of the song hint it's the title**

 **anywhooo**

 **review and favorite (if there are any misspells or grammar errors feel free to tell me!)**


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